Sunday Service – Easter Sunday Message

16/4/06
<Philippians 3:7-16 >

TAKE HOLD OF THAT FOR WHICH CHRIST JESUS TOOK HOLD

OF ME
Read <Philippians 3:7-16>
v.12 “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” – in other words, it
means “take hold of what Christ Jesus wants me to take hold of”

• Many a times though we know the will of Jesus, we cannot submit to it. Take
heart – it is a process
• Our Christian life must be alive and not be dead and we must acquire the
great power of the resurrected Lord
• Jesus Christ was cursed, suffered and took on all our sins on the Cross. As
such, He had resolved all the curses, sins in accordance to what were recorded
in the Old Testament
• When we had believed in this, His Spirit had dwelled in us and He wants a
lively life (i.e. not a dead one) to all those who believed. At the same time, we
will also acquire the power to change everything in our environment, and
acquire our crown on our earthly days.
• Therefore, God’s will is not for those who believed to live a life that is the
same as all other people. God wants to give us a life that goes through death
and resurrection. Therefore, it is most important for a believer to understand
and experience the dead and resurrected life, power and lives.
• This is because God’s purpose is not to create a perfect world without sin or a
world with every human being fully submissive to Him but to create an eternal
Kingdom with a designated King (Jesus Christ), and a people who are made
perfect (redeemed) by this King.
• God wants to give His Children a resurrected life

1. Resurrected Life
• A person who had received a resurrected life will know that his own life is
not complete. We can enter the heavenly kingdom not because we possess
a complete life but because we are being loved, being blessed, being
called.
• Thus, such a person who understands the dead and resurrected life will
acquire the dead and resurrected power which will be obtained by letting
go of ourselves (i.e. letting go of everything that belong to us). With that,
God’s fullness will come upon us. In other words, by letting go of myself, I
will be able to acquire everything.
• Only then, we will have the true testimony → it is not through my means
that I had acquired this or that. Only those who testify like this will be able
to touch the lives of others and receive true crowns.
• It was just another quiet day when our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected from
the dead as Mary went to visit the Lord’s tomb. However, His resurrection
was actually the climax of mankind’s history and it was the start of a whole
chain of events till this day. It is the greatest power and works of God.
• Therefore, no other events in this world has greater significant than the
Lord’s resurrection. His resurrection is more victorious than any other
things. Thus, do we have any problem greater than the power of the Lord’s
resurrection?
• Therefore, for those who have been through this death and resurrection,
their whole destiny changes. From then on, the Holy Spirit enters and gives
 them the evidences and experiences of death and resurrection.
• Therefore, on the day of judgement, there will be two kinds of people in
this world: one was created to be destroyed, though they may seem to be
somebody in this world <Romans 9>; the other would be a group who are
seemingly insignificant and are rejected by the world
• The second group will each receive a white robe (i.e. the seal of the Holy
Spirit) on the day of their resurrection because he/she is known by God.
He/she has always been helped and convicted by the Holy Spirit.
• Therefore, Christian should not be afraid of dying. In fact, the death of a
Christian should be the grand finale for him/her. That being said, a lot of
Christians are very afraid of death. As such, they will spend much time and
effort to plan their will, not knowing that God will take care of their children
for them.
• If the death of Christians is the greatest finale of their lives, then their
deaths should bring the greatest blessings to all other people! And with the
hope of resurrection in us, we will live even powerful lives.
• The reality is that for a person who has Jesus Christ, it will be joyful and
beneficial for him whether he is alive or when he is dying. Therefore, Paul
says: to live is Christ and to die is gain.
• Thus, as long as we are alive, all the things / servicing we had done will
bring us crown that has eternal value. Therefore, we are able to live a life
with expectation
• What does it mean by “to live a life with expectation”?
• E.g. For someone who is getting married, he/she will have great
expectation for the day of his/her wedding. Though during the day before
the wedding, they are very busy and have to endure hardship in preparing
the house, the wedding, etc, they do everything with joy because they
have expectation while doing all those things
• Those who only know about religion will not understand death and
resurrection. They will not have a perspective for eternality ( 永 恒 观 ),
eternal joy (永恒的喜乐), and eternal strength (永恒的力量)
• Therefore, if we really have a resurrected life, we will definitely have
evidences of our resurrection. Therefore, we must discover the evidences
of our resurrections
• The world created by our Lord has laws governing it. Just as we can
discover evidences supporting many physical laws, we can also discover
evidences for the spiritual laws created by God
• If the Holy Spirit had indeed dwelled in your lives or the angels had indeed
worked in your lives, you will surely discover the evidences
• Some evidences:
1) We will seek the Lord
We received convictions when we sing hymns or read the Bible. We
have the wanting to attend worship service and seek after Him.

2) We will acknowledge God for the things that happened in our lives.
Therefore, when good things come, we know its from Him and will give
thanks to Him. When trials come, we’ll know its from Him to build us up
and we will depend on Him to pull through it. We know that both
rewards and disciplines all come from Him.

3) We will have a goal of resurrection. The Lord’s goal becomes our goal
as He is the head of our body. Everything I do is for the Lord, for
blessing others, for blessings the church, etc
In other words, we know that we belong to God.

4) The content of life is different

 We read our lives, read God, read our eternity, read mankind history all
differently. Our Historical perspective, life philosophy, values all
changes. E.g. Solomon. Though he acquires much wisdom and
knowledge of the world, he knows that it is meaningless too, a chasing
after the wind. Only the fear (i.e. the acknowledgement) of the Lord is
the beginning of all wisdom
• The above are all evidences of changes in our lives. Though we may not be
able to submit fully, but we know it and changes has already entered us.
Those of us who have resurrected with Christ must clearly discover the
evidences of resurrection
• A lot of Christians lost their first love for God, after knowing God for many
years. They no longer receive any convictions and evidences from the
Words of the Lord. They are cold towards God because they do not see the
love of God upon them and they feel nothing for the Lord. Though these
believers have eternal life, they are half dead on Earth. God says they are
lukewarm and will spilt them out.
• Though religious people are fervent, zealous and have magnanimous heart
and doings, they will never have true changes in their lives. They will never
have eternal hope in them no matter how much good they have done.
They have to earn love, earn blessings, earn grace, etc. But for us who
have assurance as children of God, we are given all blessings, and our
changes are real.

2. Acquire the great power of resurrection anywhere, anytime

• The laws of our lives are already different. In the past, it is the law of
ourselves, the law of sin and death where we have to do everything by our
own means and achieve all things by our own way.
• After receiving the Lord, we are under the Spirit’s law.
• Another word for “law” is “method”. Therefore, we’re under the Spirit’s
method.
• In the past, we rely on ourselves but now we do everything by submission
• For a person who already has the resurrected life, yet unable to discover
the perfect will of the Holy Spirit and submit to it, he will grew cold as time
goes by
• It will be painful for us if we had a lot of knowledge (be it on Biblical or
others) but cannot apply any of the knowledge in our lives.
• Thus, the resurrected power comes from:

1) Submission
• Before Jesus Christ can resurrect, He will have to die first. To die means
to submit
• Let go of our own goals and catch hold of God’s goal.
• Let go of our own will and understand God’s perfect will.
• Let go of our own timetable, and understand that God in his promises
will fulfil what He has promised through Christ

2) Live our lives by relying on the Covenant of God (faith method)

• God’s method for us is to rely on His Covenant
• We need to rely on God’s Covenant to live
• Many do not understand that why God wants us to chose the method of
faith. This is because only the method of faith gives us distinguishes us
from the world.
• We cannot compare ourselves with people of this world in terms of
wealth, knowledge, wisdom, frame, etc. However, the thing that we can
be victorious over all of them is through believing.
 • Only by faith, God becomes our background. Only by faith, God
becomes our full condition.
• People of this world will continue to suffer, and live in pain when their
physical problems are yet to be resolved. And even as they lament in
pain, or depend on the science and knowledge of this world (e.g.
doctors, lawyers, economist, counsellor) to solve their problems, they
have no guarantee that their problems could be resolved. They do not
know their tomorrow.
• It therefore does not matter how clever a person of this world is as
their lives will be futile if they do not have the Bible as their
background
• Therefore, a Christian will be no different from the worldly people when
he/she loses the Covenant. Not only will he/she worries, suffer, they will
be “eaten up” by then world.
• For Christians, no matter what take place in their lives, God is still alive!
Therefore, hold on to the promises of God!

3) Must enter the Tabernacle and pray to God

• Prayer is not about walking our own ways after praying to God (that is
only practised by religious people)
• After your prayers, you will know that your conditions are God’s full
conditions
• After your prayers, you will let go of your conditions (died to your own
perspective) and hold on to God’s full condition (blessings that comes
through the Covenant). Then you will naturally live in accordance to
God’s Word and Covenant
• Therefore, prayer is to make us simple (i.e. not complicated). It is no
use praying if we do not restore a simple faith towards the word of God.
• A lot of times, we think and analyse too much. And the problem is our
thinking and analyzing is apart from the covenant of God.
• We must be simple: God can use all my conditions no matter how they
are. God can use my circumstances no matter how futile they are.
• Therefore, Jesus Christ said: “learn from me. Learn from my gentleness
and humility”.
• We can only be gentle and humble after true prayers. And this is true
power.
• True power doesn’t come from one’s good conditions but upon seeing
that God’s condition is His full condition.
• Joseph had powers not because he was a Prime Minister. He acquired
power when he continue to trust in the Lord and able to see God during
his lives as a slave and prisoner. And with that same power he enjoys
before, he used it in his management of Egypt during his Prime
Ministerial days.
• Therefore, do we possess the true powers? If doors of evangelism really
open for us, if God really give us great ministry, if God made us
somebody of the society, do we have the powers to shoulder them?
Therefore, understand that God is training us at the moment.

3. A person’s field and perspective will be changed when the great power of the
Holy Spirit comes upon him/her
• It is then a person’s life, perspective, words, deeds will all be changed. And
it is then we can really bless a person.
• Men remain weak because they could not see the work of God, not
because of their circumstances.
• All men are the same. They are changed when they hear the correct
 message. The way Jesus Christ changes a person is not through a mystical
way, but by letting them hear the correct message.
• E.g. At the road to Emmaus, the 2 disciples were downcast. It is only when
Jesus Christ revealed the work/fulfilment of God to them, and then they
were lifted up in spirit.
• Many a times, we cannot bless people because we cannot give them hope
and strength through our words. This is because our perspectives of them
are already wrong.
• Our words come from our perspectives (or prayers).
• Jesus Christ said: For those who believe (i.e. for those with the correct life
perspectives), they will actually be able to cast out demons (i.e. power of
God), and they will speak in new tongues (i.e. words that will change
people’s life and give them hope). And it is then God will co-work with
them and accompany them with signs and wonders.
• Our prayer and words are actually our message. By sharing the correct
blessed message, we are actually the witnesses of God. And with that
same message, we will make disciples of all nations.
• In fact, it is not that difficult to change or save our families, regions and
the World. However, we will have to do it from our inner being and not
from our outer strength/works.
• We must use our inner strength to ask God to do it because it is only then
the work of the Holy Spirit will be manifested fully.
• Ponder: With what words should I use to share, change and bless someone
whom I loved, when he/she/them are willing to listen to us?
• We will only receive the words to share with others after we had seen the
love and doings of God on that person. A person will only be changed when
he/she receive blissfulness through our words and deeds.
• The theme for our church this year is “Arise and Shine”. It means to be
different from others.
• If we are the same as any other person, how can the person, whom we
loved, be changed? If we always react to others’ weaknesses the same
way as the worldly people, how can we change them?
• God is true and every man is a liar. Therefore, how can we say God did not
do when our perspective is incorrect (i.e. when we are so filled with
disbelief).
• We must really have a resurrected life and resurrected perspective if we
want to change others. Because through us, God wants to fulfil His work
Himself and through that receive the greatest glory.

Prayer & Sharing Topics

1. Have I experienced evidences of “resurrection” in my life (evidences
that are in my life, thoughts, method, goal, strength and
inheritance)?

2. Where is the mystery that allows us to enjoy the power of

resurrection in all things? How can we sustain it (especially when we
face problems)?

3. How does the Christ’s resurrection message (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts

1:8) be fulfilled in my daily life?